We have updated our Terms & Conditions. To continue, please confirm that you have read and accept these:

You have to agree to pocketmags.com's Terms & Conditions to proceed

This website use cookies and similar technologies to improve the site and to provide customised content and advertising. By using this site, you agree to this use. To learn more, including how to change your cookie settings, please view our Cookie Policy

You may not know the name Lettice Knollys, but at one time she was one of the most important members of Elizabeth I’s court. Grandniece of Anne Boleyn – and thus kin to the Queen herself – she was a woman of extraordinary beauty, passion and wit. Yet in 1579, she was cast out of Elizabeth’s good graces and banished from the palace. Her crime? She had secretly married the one man in England who was closest to the Queen’s heart, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Lettice had risked her liege’s enmity for love, and she paid the price. Later in her tumultuous life she would discover the taint of treason, and watch those closest to her succumb to the headsman’s axe – all the while remaining subject to Elizabeth’s bitter hatred.

HIDDEN ROYAL Lettice’s parents Sir Francis Knollys and Katherine Carey; Carey was born of Mary Boleyn, but who was her father? Some say it was Henry VIII, placing Lettice closer to the throne than she knew

COUNTRY IDYLL Elizabeth’s future love rival grew up in this suitably regal manor in Oxfordshire

About History Revealed

In this month’s issue… Who killed JFK?
We know Lee Harvey Oswald pulled a trigger, but was he a lone gunman or part of a larger conspiracy? Plus: Elizabeth’s I love rival; the Irish Potato Famine; Picasso’s most prolific year; the medieval knight who’s travels made him more famous than Marco Polo; the Top 10 art controversies and the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.